A govenment of the people, by the people, for the people is not a two-party plutocracy where corporations and the uber-wealthy control the government and control the very narrative we hear every day. It's a war between personal freedom and liberty versus authoritarianism and tyranny.
Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, someone delivers a video you never knew you wanted to see. In this case, Chris Hau combines two of his passions — surfing and playing guitar — into one impressive GoPro clip.
We’ve seen amazing guitar work with people playing with their teeth, behind their head and even with their feet, but Hau pulls off an amazing balancing act of keeping himself standing with the waves undulating below his surfboard while not really missing a lick on his Telecaster.
It’s safe to say he’s double shredding and doing so with a smile on his face throughout. As Hau states in the video above, “It’s hard trying to do the song while surfing. There’s so many different parts of your brain trying to work at the same time.”
Congrats to Chris Hau on pulling off the “double shred.” Your turn, guitar players. What’s the next impressive feat you’ve got up your sleeve?
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defying the Republican-run Congress, President
Barack Obama rejected a bill Tuesday to approve construction of the
Keystone XL oil pipeline, wielding his veto power for only the third
time in his presidency.
Obama offered no indication of whether he'll eventually issue a
permit for the pipeline, whose construction has become a flashpoint in
the U.S. debate about environmental policy and climate change. Instead,
Obama sought to reassert his authority to make the decision himself,
rebuffing GOP lawmakers who will control both the House and Senate for
the remainder of the president's term.
"The presidential power to veto legislation is one I take seriously,"
Obama said in a brief notice delivered to the Senate. "But I also take
seriously my responsibility to the American people."
Obama vetoed the bill in private with no fanfare, in contrast to the
televised ceremony Republican leaders staged earlier this month when
they signed the bill and sent it to the president. House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, said Republicans were "not even close" to giving up the
fight and derided the veto as a "national embarrassment."
The move sends the politically charged issue back to Congress, where
Republicans haven't shown they can muster the two-thirds majority in
both chambers needed to override Obama's veto. North Dakota Sen. John
Hoeven, the bill's chief GOP sponsor, said Republicans are about four
votes short in the Senate and need about 11 more in the House.
Although the veto is Obama's first since Republicans took control on
Capitol Hill, it was not likely to be the last. GOP lawmakers are lining
up legislation rolling back Obama's actions on health care, immigration
and financial regulation that Obama has promised to similarly reject.
"He's looking at this as showing he still can be king of the hill,
because we don't have the votes to override," Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe
of Oklahoma, a vocal opponent of Obama's climate change agenda, said in
an interview. "If he vetoed this, he's going to veto many others that
are out there."
First proposed more than six years ago, the Keystone XL pipeline
project has sat in limbo ever since, awaiting a permit required by the
federal government because it would cross an international boundary. The
pipeline would connect Canada's tar sands with refineries on the Texas
Gulf Coast that specialize in processing heavy crude oil.
Republicans and the energy industry say the $8 billion project would
create jobs, spur growth and increase America's independence from
Mideast energy sources. Democrats and environmental groups have sought
to make the pipeline a poster child for the type of dirty energy sources
they say are exacerbating global warming.
For his part, Obama says his administration is still weighing the
pipeline's merits, and he has repeatedly threatened to veto any attempts
by lawmakers to make the decision for him.
Environmental groups said they were confident Obama's veto was a
prelude to a full rejection of the pipeline. But TransCanada, the
company proposing the pipeline, said it "remains fully committed" to
building. And the Canadian government said it was not a matter of if,
but when.
The GOP-controlled House passed the bill earlier in February on a
270-152 vote, following weeks of debate and tweaks in the Senate to
insert language stating that climate change is real and not a hoax.
Republican leaders in Congress delayed sending the bill to the White
House until they returned from a weeklong recess, ensuring they would be
on hand to denounce the president when he vetoed the bill.
The veto forced Republicans, still reveling in their dramatic gains
in the midterm elections, to confront the limitations of being unable to
turn their ideas into law without the president's consent - despite the
fact they now control both chambers of Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would
start the process to try to override Obama's veto by March 3.
Republicans were also considering inserting Keystone into other critical
legislation dealing with energy, spending or infrastructure that Obama
would be less likely to veto, said Hoeven.
Obama last wielded his veto power in October 2010, nixing a
relatively mundane bill dealing with recognition of documents notarized
out of state. With the Keystone bill, Obama's veto count stands at just
three - far fewer than most of his predecessors. Yet his veto threats
have been piling up rapidly since Republicans took full control of
Congress, numbering more than a dozen so far this year.
The president has said he won't approve Keystone if it's found to
significantly increase U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief
greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. A State Department analysis
found that the tar sands would be developed one way or another, meaning
construction of the pipeline wouldn't necessarily affect emissions. The
Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month called for that
analysis to be revisited, arguing that a drop in oil prices may have
altered the equation.
'Well... So where are we??? The Rethugs have pretended a new Jobs Bill never existed, and now complaining about a pipeline they say will create jobs, and for who??? Perhaps the many undocumented who will never ask for a Raise or Healthcare, only to fill the pockets of those who spent the most on buying their Elections to begin with??? Fuck Yeah Barack, Kick these Shady Bastards when they are Down, they do not represent the American People by any Means!!!!'
Many Americans know that the United States is
not a democracy but a “corporatocracy,” in which we are ruled by a
partnership of giant corporations, the extremely wealthy elite and
corporate-collaborator government officials. However, the truth of such
tyranny is not enough to set most of us free to take action. Too many of
us have become pacified by corporatocracy-created institutions and
culture.
Some activists insist that this political
passivity problem is caused by Americans’ ignorance due to corporate
media propaganda, and others claim that political passivity is caused by
the inability to organize due to a lack of money. However, polls show
that on the important issues of our day – from senseless wars, to Wall
Street bailouts, to corporate tax-dodging, to health insurance rip-offs –
the majority of Americans are not ignorant to the reality that they are
being screwed. And American history is replete with organizational
examples – from the Underground Railroad, to the Great Populist Revolt,
to the Flint sit-down strike, to large wildcat strikes a generation ago –
of successful rebels who had little money but lots of guts and
solidarity.
The elite spend their lives stockpiling money
and have the financial clout to bribe, divide and conquer the rest of
us. The only way to overcome the power of money is with the power of
courage and solidarity. When we regain our guts and solidarity, we can
then more wisely select from – and implement – time-honored strategies
and tactics that oppressed peoples have long used to defeat the elite.
So, how do we regain our guts and solidarity?
1. Create the Cultural and Psychological “Building Blocks” for Democratic Movements Historian Lawrence Goodwyn has studied
democratic movements such as Solidarity in Poland, and he has written
extensively about the populist movement in the United States that
occurred during the end of the 19th century (what he calls “the largest
democratic mass movement in American history”). Goodwyn concludes that
democratic movements are initiated by people who are neither resigned to
the status quo nor intimidated by established powers. For Goodwyn, the
cultural and psychological building blocks of democratic movements are
individual self-respect and collective self-confidence. Without
individual self-respect, we do not believe that we are worthy of power
or capable of utilizing power wisely, and we accept as our role being a
subject of power. Without collective self-confidence, we do not believe
that we can succeed in wresting away power from our rulers.
Thus, it is the job of all of us – from
parents, to students, to teachers, to journalists, to clergy, to
psychologists, to artists and EVERYBODY who gives a damn about genuine
democracy – to create individual self-respect and collective
self-confidence.
2. Confront and Transform ALL Institutions that Have Destroyed Individual Self-Respect and Collective Self-Confidence In “Get Up, Stand Up, ” I detail 12 major
institutional and cultural areas that have broken people’s sprit of
resistance, and all are “battlefields for democracy” in which we can
fight to regain our individual self-respect and collective self
confidence: • Television • Isolation and bureaucratization • “Fundamentalist consumerism” and advertising/propaganda • Student loan debt and indentured servitude • Surveillance • The decline of unions/solidarity among working people • Greed and a “money-centric” culture • Fear-based schools that teach obedience • Psychopathologizing noncompliance • Elitism via professional training • The corporate media • The US electoral system
As Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, “All our
things are right and wrong together. The wave of evil washes all our
institutions alike.”
3. Side Each Day in Every Way With Anti-Authoritarians We can recover our self-respect and strength
by regaining our integrity. This process requires a personal
transformation to overcome our sense of powerlessness and fight for what
we believe in. Integrity includes acts of courage resisting all
illegitimate authorities. We must recognize that in virtually every
aspect of our life in every day, we can either be on the side of
authoritarianism and the corporatocracy or on the side of
anti-authoritarianism and democracy. Specifically, we can question the
legitimacy of government, media, religious, educational and other
authorities in our lives, and if we establish that an authority is not
legitimate, we can resist it. And we can support others who are
resisting illegitimate authorities. A huge part of solidarity comes from
supporting others who are resisting the illegitimate authorities in
their lives. Walt Whitman had it right: “Resist much, obey little. Once
unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved.”
4. Regain Morale by Thinking More Critically About Our Critical Thinking While we need critical thinking to
effectively question and challenge illegitimate authority – and to
wisely select the best strategies and tactics to defeat the elite –
critical thinking can reveal some ugly truths about reality, which can
result in defeatism. Thus, critical thinkers must also think critically
about their defeatism, and realize that it can cripple the will and
destroy motivation, thus perpetuating the status quo. William James
(1842–1910), the psychologist, philosopher, and occasional political
activist (member of the Anti-Imperialist League who, during the
Spanish-American War, said, “God damn the US for its vile conduct in the
Philippine Isles!”) had a history of pessimism and severe depression,
which helped fuel some of his greatest wisdom on how to overcome
immobilization. James, a critical thinker, had little stomach for what
we now call “positive thinking,” but he also came to understand how
losing belief in a possible outcome can guarantee its defeat. Antonio
Gramsci (1891–1937), an Italian political theorist and Marxist activist
who was imprisoned by Mussolini, came to the same conclusions. Gramsci’s
phrase “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” has inspired
many critical thinkers, including Noam Chomsky, to maintain their
efforts in the face of difficult challenges.
5. Restore Courage in Young People The corporatocracy has not only decimated
America’s labor union movement, it has almost totally broken the spirit
of resistance among young Americans – an even more frightening
achievement. Historically, young people without family responsibilities
have felt most freed up to challenge illegitimate authority. But
America’s education system creates fear, shame and debt – all killers of
the spirit of resistance. No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top and
standardized testing tyranny results in the kind of fear that crushes
curiosity, critical thinking and the capacity to constructively resist
illegitimate authority. Rebel teachers, parents, and students – in a
variety of overt and covert ways – have already stopped complying with
corporatocracy schooling. We must also stop shaming intelligent young
people who reject college, and we must instead recreate an economy that
respects all kinds of intelligence and education. While the
corporatocracy exploits student loan debt to both rake in easy money and
break young people’s spirit of resistance, the rest of us need to rebel
against student loan debt and indentured servitude. And parents and
mental health professionals need to stop behavior-modifying and
medicating young people who are resisting illegitimate authority.
6. Focus on Democracy Battlefields Where the Corporate Elite Don’t Have Such a Large Financial Advantage The emphasis of many activists is on
electoral politics, but the elite have a huge advantage in this
battlefield, where money controls the US electoral process. By focusing
exclusively on electoral politics at the expense of everything else, we:
(1) give away power when we focus only on getting leaders elected and
become dependent on them; (2) buy into the elite notion that democracy
is all about elections; (3) lose sight of the fact that democracy means
having influence over all aspects of our lives; and (4) forget that if
we have no power in our workplace, in our education and in all our
institutions, then there will never be democracy worthy of the name.
Thus, we should focus our fight more on the daily institutions we
experience. As Wendell Berry said, “If you can control a people’s
economy, you don’t need to worry about its politics; its politics have
become irrelevant.”
7. Heal from “Corporatocracy Abuse” and “Battered People’s Syndrome” to Gain Strength Activists routinely become frustrated when
truths about lies, victimization and oppression don’t set people free to
take action. But when we human beings eat crap for too long, we
gradually lose our self-respect to the point that we become
psychologically too weak to take action. Many Americans are embarrassed
to accept that, after years of corporatocracy subjugation, we have
developed “battered people’s syndrome” and what Bob Marley called
“mental slavery.” To emancipate ourselves and others, we must: • Move out of denial and accept that we are a subjugated people. • Admit that we have bought into many lies. There is a dignity,
humility, and strength in facing the fact that, while we may have once
bought into some lies, we no longer do so. • Forgive ourselves and others for accepting the abuser’s lies. Remember the liars we face are often quite good at lying. • Maintain a sense of humor. Victims of horrific abuse, including
those in concentration camps and slave plantations, have discovered
that pain can either immobilize us or be transformed by humor into
energy. • Stop beating ourselves up for having been in an abusive
relationship. The energy we have is better spent on healing and then
working to change the abusive system; this provides more energy, and
when we use this energy to provide respect and confidence for others,
everybody gets energized.
8. Unite Populists by Rejecting Corporate Media’s Political Divisions The corporate media routinely divides
Americans as “liberals,” “conservatives” and “moderates,” a useful
division for the corporatocracy, because no matter which of these groups
is the current electoral winner, the corporatocracy retains power. In
order to defeat the corporatocracy, it’s more useful to divide people in
terms of authoritarians versus anti-authoritarians, elitists versus
populists and corporatists versus anticorporatists. Both left
anti-authoritarians and libertarian anti-authoritarians passionately
oppose current US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Wall Street bailout,
the PATRIOT Act, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
so-called “war on drugs” and several other corporatocracy policies.
There are differences between anti-authoritarians but, as Ralph Nader
and Ron Paul have together recently publicly discussed, we can form
coalitions and alliances on these important power-money issues. One
example of an anti-authoritarian democratic movement (which I am
involved in) is the mental health treatment reform movement, comprised
of left anti-authoritarians and libertarians. We all share distrust of
Big Pharma and contempt for pseudoscience, and we believe that people
deserve truly informed choice regarding treatment. We respect Erich
Fromm, the democratic-socialist psychoanalyst, along with Thomas Szasz,
the libertarian psychiatrist, both passionate anti-authoritarians who
have confronted mental health professionals for using dogma to coerce
people.
9. Unite “Comfortable Anti-Authoritarians” and “Afflicted Anti-Authoritarians This “comfortable-afflicted” continuum is
based on the magnitude of pain that one has simply getting through the
day. The term comfortable anti-authoritarian is not a pejorative one,
but refers to those anti-authoritarians lucky enough to have decent
paying and maybe even meaningful jobs, or platforms through which their
voices are heard or social supports in their lives. Many of these
comfortable anti-authoritarians may know that there are millions of
Americans working mindless jobs in order to hold on to their health
insurance, or hustling two low-wage jobs to pay college loans, rent and a
car payment, or who may be unable to find even a poorly paying,
mindless job and are instead helplessly watching eviction or foreclosure
and bankruptcy close in on them. However, unless these comfortable
anti-authoritarians have once been part of that afflicted class – and
remember what it feels like – they may not be able to fully respect the
afflicted’s emotional state. The afflicted need to recognize that human
beings often become passive because they are overwhelmed by pain (not
because they are ignorant, stupid, or lazy), and in order to function at
all, they often shut down or distract themselves from this pain. Some
comfortable anti-authoritarians assume that people’s inactions are
caused by ignorance. This not only sounds and smells like elitism, it
creates resentment for many in the afflicted class who lack the energy
to be engaged in any activism. Respect, resources and anything that
concretely reduces their level of pain is likely to be far more
energizing than a scolding lecture. That’s the lesson of many democratic
movements, including the Great Populist Revolt.
10. Do Not Let Debate Divide Anti-Authoritarians Spirited debate is what democracy is all
about, but when debate turns to mutual antipathy and divides
anti-authoritarians, it plays into the hands of the elite. One such
divide among anti-elitists is over the magnitude of change that should
be worked for and celebrated. On one extreme are people who think that
anything is better than nothing at all. At the other extreme are people
who reject any incremental change and hold out for total transformation.
We can better unite by asking these questions: Does the change increase
individual self-respect and collective self-confidence, and increase
one’s energy level to pursue even greater democracy? Or does it feel
like a sellout that decreases individual self-respect and collective
self-confidence, and de-energizes us? Utilizing the criteria of
increased self-respect and collective self-confidence, those of us who
believe in genuine democracy can more constructively debate whether the
change is going to increase strength to gain democracy or is going to
take the steam out of a democratic movement. Respecting both sides of
this debate makes for greater solidarity and better decisions.
To summarize, democracy will not be won
without guts and solidarity. Risk-free green actions – such as shopping
from independents, buying local, recycling, composting, consuming less,
not watching television and so on – can certainly help counter a
dehumanizing world. However, revolutions that truly transform
fundamental power inequities and enable us to feel like men and women
rather than children and slaves require risk, guts and solidarity.
